While fieldbuses like PROFIBUS and Industrial Ethernet networks such as PROFINET reduce hard wiring to a minimum, there is often a need to cut costs further by eliminating the cable altogether.

Sometimes, equipment can’t be easily reached with a cable. In other cases – for example with conveyors or cranes - moving equipment can’t be reliably connected using cable.

In such cases, a wireless solution becomes the only option so PI Working Groups are now active in defining how wireless technologies can be deployed across automation networks.  Solutions based on readily-available and widely-accepted technologies are already defined, or are being adopted.